Libertyville software engineer accused of stealing trade secrets

A 49-year-old Libertyville man who was employed as a senior software engineer with the Chicago-based CME Group has been charged with stealing trade secrets, officials said.

Chunlai Yang was arrested Friday morning by FBI agents at the CME office located at 550 W. Washington St. and was charged with one count of theft of trade secrets, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Chicago.

Yang had been employed with CME since 2000 and was responsible for writing computer code, officials said.

The company started monitoring his computer activity in May of this year and discovered thousands of files had been copied to a removable storage device. Many of the files were critical to the operation of CME and contained protected source code, officials said.

An investigation by the FBI revealed Yang had been in contact via email with the director of the Logistics and Trade Bureau for the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone, according to the complaint. One email contained a CME document with protected source code and proprietary information.

Later it was determined Yang had booked a trip to China and was scheduled to leave Chicago on July 7, officials said.

Yang was ordered held without bail pending his next court appearance Wednesday. He faces up to 10 years incarceration, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervision if convicted, according to the FBI.